Beaches Energy told the City Council it needs modern diagnostic test equipment to reduce outage times and protect multimillion-dollar transformers and breakers. The council approved a sole-source authorization to purchase equipment from Omicron, Dialo (transcript reference) and Doble after staff explained the operational and safety benefits.

The utility’s substation electrical engineer (identified in the meeting as Nick) told council that Beaches Energy serves more than 35,000 customers and that aging transformers and breakers have long lead times for replacement. He said in-house testing would cut service-restoration times and reduce the need to rely on outside labs. He described expected equipment life spans near 10 years and noted recurring calibration and recertification costs of one to five years depending on the device.

Council members asked whether the equipment had ongoing costs, how long items are expected to last and whether the procurement had been competitively bid. Staff said comparable vendors exist but that standardization, staff familiarity and training supported sole-source approval; the purchasing manual language was included in the packet. After questioning, the council authorized the purchases by roll call.

What was approved: sole-source authorization for the specified test equipment; council did not vote on specific dollar amounts in public packet notes.